Coronado CA USA, April 5th, 2014- The USS Coronado was commissioned on Saturday at North Island Naval base and was attended by local dignitaries, members of the military and their families and scores of residents from the city of Coronado. The LCS 4 is the third Navy warship to be carry Coronado. Navy history in the city of Coronado goes back more than one hundred years. David Brooks / U-T San Diego Mandatory Photo Credit: DAVID BROOKS / UTSANDIEGO Zuma Press copyright 2014— David Brooks

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Coronado CA USA, April 5th, 2014- The USS Coronado was commissioned on Saturday at North Island Naval base and was attended by local dignitaries, members of the military and their families and scores of residents from the city of Coronado. The LCS 4 is the third Navy warship to be carry Coronado. Navy history in the city of Coronado goes back more than one hundred years. David Brooks / U-T San Diego Mandatory Photo Credit: DAVID BROOKS / UTSANDIEGO Zuma Press copyright 2014
— David Brooks

The littoral combat ship Coronado is the third to be named for the city that is small in size — only 26,600 residents — but large in the annals of Navy history.

It’s considered the birthplace of naval aviation, as the first Navy pilots came to an early version of North Island in 1911 for flight training.

These days, the city is home to an aircraft carrier base and the headquarters of the Navy SEALs. It also houses the offices of the head of naval aviation, known as the Navy “Air Boss,” and the commander of the Pacific surface fleet.

Among the 4,500 people who attended Saturday’s commissioning were plenty who themselves charted part of that history.

Dawn Benson was born in Coronado to a Navy family. Her dad was an enlisted pilot on the Langley, the Navy’s first aircraft carrier. She remembers holiday parties aboard the ship while it was docked in San Diego Bay.

“We’re old-school Navy,” said Benson, who went on to serve 35 years in the Navy nurse corps and retired as a commander.

It’s common belief that Coronado has the nation’s highest concentration of retired admirals. Whether or not that’s true, it’s certain that the city’s neat residential streets are full of decorated naval heroes.

USS Coronado in the Navy

USS Coronado (PF-38), a patrol frigate, served in World War II as a convoy escort.

USS Coronado (AGF-11), an amphibious transport dock redesignated as an auxiliary command ship. Served as flag ship for the U.S. Sixth and Third Fleets.

USS Coronado (LCS-4), the fourth littoral combat ship. Called the “Crown of the Fleet” as a nod to Coronado’s “Crown City” nickname.

World War II ace Dean Laird lives there, as did legendary aviator Rear Adm. James Ramage until his death in 2012.

The late Vice Adm. James Stockdale, the highest-ranking American prisoner of war during Vietnam and a Medal of Honor recipient, lived in Coronado until his death in 2005. His widow, Sybil, attended Saturday’s ceremony.

Adm. Mark Ferguson, the keynote speaker, talked about what it is like to live in Coronado. The Navy’s No. 2 officer resided there earlier in his career when he commanded the destroyer Benfold. Stockdale was a neighbor.

“We used to watch him walk by our house every day. My wife would point him out to our children as a great American,” Ferguson said.

David Allyn and Ray Grimm drove over from Lakeside for the ceremony. Both former Navy men said visiting Coronado transports them back to the days of crisp white uniforms and ribbons on their chests.

“As soon as I cross the bridge, it’s like coming home,” said Grimm, a chief petty officer meteorologist who retired in 1977 after participating in the Navy’s recovery of the Apollo 8 space capsule.

The newest Coronado is the Navy’s fourth littoral combat ship, a new vessel line headquartered in San Diego.

The ships are light and fast, intended for use in coastal waters and missions, including hunting for mines and submarines and catching pirates and drug runners.

They come in two varieties. The Freedom variant is a traditional steel, monohulled ship. The Independence version, of which the Coronado is the second, is an aluminum trimaran with a cavernous internal bay and oversized flight deck.

Its unique look invited questions on Saturday. While most Navy ships are painted “haze gray,” the Coronado hull has a somewhat mottled look because its aluminum skin remains unpainted.

All the highly automated littorals are an experiment with a minimal 40-person crew. The Navy later acknowledged more hands were needed and added personnel.

The vessel class was dogged by controversy from the start. Early criticism over the ballooning price tag turned into complaints about maintenance and performance shortfalls. The Navy defended the littorals, calling their interchangeable interior design the future.

In February, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel cut the class from 52 to 32 ships, questioning whether the littorals have the “protection and firepower to survive” against a modern adversary.

But even with the reduction, the littorals will be the second-largest class of surface combatant ships in the fleet by 2018, according to Rear Adm. Brian Antonio, program executive officer.

The residents of Coronado seem to be fans of the ship line. Several were able to rattle off its specifications at Saturday’s ceremony.

“It can go 40 mph. Isn’t that something?” said Tom Golden, a retired Navy captain who settled in Coronado in 1970. “The ships I was on, if they got 15 knots, we were lucky.”

His friend, Coronado Cays resident Dick Beh, said, “This is a brand-new concept. It’s kind of exciting to have the name Coronado attached to it.”

Mayor Casey Tanaka told the crew that having the city’s name on their uniform sleeves will “forever be a source of pride.”

But as Ferguson pointed out, the city may not see the ship much. The Coronado, like its sister vessels, is expected to be deployed for up to 16 months at a time. Its two crews will swap in and out every few months.

The bottom line, he told the skippers and crews on Saturday: “Go forward, and bring us victory at sea.”